But on Thursday, a State Department spokesman stressed that Mr Jenkins was not in the clear, and that Washington would pursue Mr Jenkins under a Status of Forces agreement between the the US and Japan.

The former GI has been accused by Washington of four counts of desertion - a charge his family back in America denies.
They maintain he was kidnapped by North Korea like his wife Hitomi Soga.

"We're glad that he's got to Japan where he can get some proper medical treatment," Mr Jenkins' nephew James Hyman told Japan's NTV network.

"He has had a very rough life and we're just glad that he's in a country now where he can live freely," he said.